Disclaimer: I don’t know how much of this I actually believe.
From The Digital Bits website, in the middle of a discussion about HD and Blu-Ray versions of Trek:
So here’s where it gets even more interesting. In doing some digging with our industry sources over the last few days… I’ve found out something that’s going to come as a major surprise to a lot of you. It might be one of the best kept secrets in Hollywood in recent years. Never mind The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager: It turns out that CBS Video, as part of their high-definition remastering of The Original Series, IS giving a lot of the special effects shots a new CG face-lift! Specifically, they’re re-doing all of the spaceship shots. This to me is a very exciting idea… in principle. As anyone who saw the Mirror Universe episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise will tell you, the old TOS ships look awfully damn good in new CG. The replicated TOS sets, the original ship designs… rather than looking dated, they actually hold up VERY well by today’s standards. Re-doing the effects will give new life to The Original Series and could help it appeal to a new, younger generation of fans. Unlike, say… the Star Wars films… the original versions of these episodes will always be preserved in GREAT remastered quality on DVD. And it would be extremely cool if CBS would release BOTH versions of the episodes on HD-DVD/Blu-ray, such that you can choose which version you wish to watch… the original or the new enhanced version.Here’s my concern about this… I’ve learned that, rather than going with a proven effects house, CBS has chosen to do the new CG work in-house. One hopes that they’ve got someone with REAL Trek effects experience and knowledge involved in the effort… and they they’re taking care to preserve the look and feel of the original shots. There’s also the concern over whether CBS will re-frame the 1.33:1 aspect ratio series in 1.78:1 for HD presentation. I tried contacting CBS and their DVD distributor, Paramount, on this subject last week, but there was basically no comment. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough, but cross your fingers in the meantime. Any way you slice it, however, this is a very interesting development.
